Matzzie told the Los Angeles Times Friday that Hayden, who was NSA chief from 1999 to 2005, had "no expectation of privacy" in a public place, adding the former NSA chief was sitting about 7 or 8 feet behind him, "talking very loudly.’’

Hayden’s office apparently caught wind of the tweets and alerted the former NSA chief, who took it well, posing for a picture with Matzzie, 38, who runs a renewable energy company.

Matzzie told The Times that Hayden walked over to him and asked if he would like an interview.

"I said I’m not a reporter," Matzzie said. "He said, 'Everybody is a reporter.'"

Hayden, who also was CIA director between May 2006 and February 2009, said in statement to media outlets that he didn't criticize Obama.

"I actually said these are very difficult issues. I said I had political guidance, too, that limited the things that I did when I was director of NSA. Now that political guidance is going to be more robust. It wasn’t criticism.”

The incident came as the U.S. government’s surveillance has come under scrutiny, drawing anger from European allies amid reports that American intelligence agencies may have tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone and collected more than 70 million pieces of data on French phone communications.

As for Hayden’s conversations, Matzzie tweeted the obvious: "This was not the quiet car."